Product designer Nick Rawcliffe (top, with Suzi Perry) is £50,000 richer after taking top honours in the nationwide Fiat UK-sponsored Smiles Per Hour Design Competition, his winning 'Snowbone' is a hybrid BMX that fits on to any existing snowboard.

Product designer Nick Rawcliffe is £50,000 richer after taking top honours in the nationwide Fiat UK-sponsored Smiles Per Hour Design Competition. Thirty-four year old Nick emerged the winner on Thursday night (25 September) after a gruelling day of presenting his invention, the Snowbone – a hybrid BMX that fits on to any existing snowboard – to a panel of judges which included Suzi Perry of Channel 5’s The Gadget Show and Fiat UK’s managing director Andrew Humberstone.

The competition was simple – come up with an idea which would make travelling from A to B more fun. Lancashire-born designer Nick, who lives in London, is a fan of extreme sports and especially freestyle motocross, and presented the Snowbone which, he explained “can be thrown around like a BMX and the rider can do tricks that never before have been seen on snow”.

Now the designer, who holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MA in Design from the Royal College of Art, is planning to move his invention forward and will use his winnings to fund the final development of his prototype. He plans to launch the Snowbone to the winter sports market this season.

“We were very impressed with the standard of innovation and creativity of the entries and it was a hard task shortlisting the five entrants who went forward to the final round of our competition,” says Andrew Humberstone.

As well as Nick, the shortlisted five included Natalie Daghestani with her design, the Hylo Shoes featuring a retractable heel; Simon Tarrant and the Streetrower - a rowing machine for off-water journeying; Steven Spong who designed the Longbow, based on a skateboard and Harley Zblewski whose invention, the Suitcase Car, folds up for easy portability.

Suzi Perry, who presented the winning cheque to Nick Rawcliffe added: “I am very proud to have been involved with Fiat’s Smiles Per Hour Design Competition since the outset and am delighted to have seen such incredible inventions. We have been very impressed with all the presentations and it’s in situations like this that you wish everyone could be a winner!”

Other judges at the event, which was staged at the flagship Fiat Marylebone store on Wigmore Street, London, were Tom Lawton – designer and inventor; Stuart Nathan – Special Projects Editor of The Engineer magazine and Garry Munns – Creative Director of Leo Burnett.